One would think that Kansas City has struggled much too long in its efforts to establish a light rail system. It has struggled with where it will go and where the money will come from.

There was one lost ballot issue, and another ballot issue won but later was rescinded by the Kansas City Council because it was, in its opinion, unworkable.

And the scenario goes on and on.

But if you look at it in the context of other urban communities, Kansas City’s forward movement is not that unusual.

Take Phoenix.

In 1985, the Arizona Legislature passed a law enabling voters in Maricopa County to vote on a sales tax to fund a regional freeway and create a regional public transportation authority. In the same year, county residents passed a sales tax to fund both.

In 1988, Scottsdale, Ariz., passed a transportation tax to fund transit. In 1993, the Regional Public Transit Authority adopted the idea of a Valley Metro for the regional system to put the communities in the region, including Phoenix, under the Valley Metro umbrella.

Eventually, everyone got into the act. Three years later, Tempe, Ariz., voters passed a half-cent sales tax for transit, followed by Mesa, Ariz., in 1998, and then in 2000, the city of Phoenix finally got on board and passed a four-tenths-of-a-cent sales tax for improvements to start a bus rapid transit in 2003 and light rail in 2008.

Glendale, Ariz., came on board in 2001 with a half-cent sales tax for transit, and then in 2004, Maricopa County voters extended the half-cent sales tax. It will provide more than $5.8 billion for transit, including light rail.

And finally in 2005, Peoria, Ariz., voters approved a sales tax for transportation.

Done yet? Not quite.

All communities that are members of the Valley Metro must spend Local Transportation Assistance Funds from the Arizona Lottery on public transportation. What percentage of the lottery money is spent depends on the population of each community. The funds are from the national Powerball lottery, and the regional transit authority acts as a pass-through agency.

Taken together, that’s a lot of money being spent on public transportation and light rail.

All this happened over a 20-year period, and light rail won’t be a reality in Phoenix until 2008, 23 years after the first initiative was passed.

Compare that to Kansas City and the only funding on the books at this stage is a proposed three-eighths-cent, or quarter-cent sales tax for light rail from one taxing jurisdiction, Kansas City — no county, state or federal funding yet.

Building light rail is a slow process, requiring inter-jurisdictional cooperation and long-term commitment.

Let’s take Los Angeles. It’s a lot bigger than Kansas City, but there is a similarity.

More than a year ago, city officials in L.A. were considering extending light rail, called the Green Line, to Los Angeles International Airport.

But the woman who runs the airport, Lydia Kennard, said the proposal was nonsense.

She said it would not only cost at least a half-billion dollars, but only three-tenths of 1 percent of airport passengers would use the line, dubbed by many residents as the “train to nowhere.”

Sound familiar? Kansas City Aviation Director Mark VanLoh said months ago that light rail to Kansas City International Airport would do little for airline passengers since the majority of them come from Johnson County, Kan.

The Green Line in Los Angeles may still go to the airport, and light rail in Kansas City may still go to KCI, but we can see the patterns.

What’s going on in Kansas City is not unusual; it’s just a little behind schedule.

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